To escape CLUDE and be drowned in Conway

Meaning & Analysis

Describes the futile act of avoiding a dangerous river, the Clude, only to perish in another, the Conway, highlighting an ironic and tragic journey from one peril to another.

Insights

Ironic Fate

Symbolizes a situation where the effort to avoid one specific danger leads directly to an equal or worse catastrophe, rendering the initial success meaningless.

Exchanging Problems

Illustrates the 'out of the frying pan, into the fire' dilemma, where solving one problem only serves to introduce another, often similar, one.

Flawed Judgment

Acts as a critique of poor foresight, where an intense focus on an immediate threat blinds an individual to subsequent, equally perilous dangers.

Classical Parallel

Functions as a British parallel to the classical dilemma of navigating 'between Scylla and Charybdis', adapting a universal theme of inescapable, adjacent dangers into a specific Welsh geographical context.

Psychological Tunnel Vision

The proverb reflects the cognitive bias of focusing so intently on overcoming a single, known obstacle that one fails to perceive other looming threats, leading to a false sense of security and ultimate failure.

Geographical Grounding

By using the real Welsh rivers Clwyd (Clude) and Conwy (Conway), the proverb grounds an abstract warning in a tangible, local landscape, giving it the weight of a historical cautionary tale.

Rhetorical Devices

Irony

The proverb's power lies in its situational irony, where the expected outcome of escape (safety) is subverted by a fatal consequence (drowning).

Juxtaposition

It sharply contrasts the concept of 'escape' with the finality of being 'drowned', creating a memorable and impactful statement on the nature of fate and poor judgment.

Geographical Metaphor

Uses specific place names, 'Clude' and 'Conway', as metaphors for distinct but related dangers, making the abstract concept concrete.

ironyfatedangerpyrrhic-victoryjudgmentgeography

Analyzed with gemini-2.5-pro on July 24, 2025

Transcription

Quotations

*However, that Pilot is to be pitied, who, to shun Scylla, doth run on Charybdis, because those Rocks were neer . . whereas the two Rivers of Clude and Conway are twenty miles asunder . . but little or much in such cases are the same with indiscreet persons.

— 1662, FULLER, Worthies Carnarvonshire, II 585

Cross References

S169 Between Scylla and Charybdis.

Related Proverbs

E151 Little ENGLAND beyond Wales 92.1%S597 SNOWDON (Eriry) will yield sufficient pasture for all the cattle of Wales put together 91.2%S863 There is great STIRRING in the North when old wives ride scout 90.8%T444 TOTTENHAM¹ is turned French 90.5%B37 The BAILIFF OF BEDFORD is coming 90.5%W266 WELLAND¹ shall drown all Holland² with his excrement 90.3%M1105 MONMOUTH CAPS 90.3%H804 To give one a Cornish HUG 90.2%P536 POWYS is the paradise of Wales 90.1%W272 The WELSHMAN keeps nothing until he has lost it 90.1%W271 A WELSHMAN had rather see his dam on her bier than see a fair Februeer 90.0%W276 Who goes to WESTMINSTER¹ for a wife, to Paul's² for a man, and to Smithfield³ for a horse may meet with a whore, a knave, and a jade 89.8%L228 London LICKPENNY¹ 89.8%B99 The BASILISK's eye is fatal 89.8%J34 JANUARY freezes the pot by the fire 89.6%W768 Not a WORD of Penzance 89.6%S161 The SCOTCH ORDINARY 89.4%C263 CHEEK by jowl 89.4%M1016 A Scotch MIST will wet an Englishman to the skin 89.4%F183 All FELLOWS, Jock and the laird 89.4%

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